Making the Gig Economy Work for Workers: An Exploration of Freelancing Platforms

Freelancing platforms, such as Upwork and Fiverr, have enabled virtual spaces for freelancers to advertise, deliver, and charge for their services worldwide with reduced uncertainty. However, freelancing platforms, like other types of gig work, present challenges for workers such as opaque regulations, ranking systems, and power imbalances that can negatively impact workers' experiences. While research in the gig economy has gained more attention recently, most studies have looked at mainstream platforms, such as Uber, leaving other types of gig work underexplored. Therefore, my PhD will use qualitative and co-design methods to expand the understanding of freelancing platforms' issues and provide design recommendations for improving freelancers' working experiences.

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Author and article information

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Juan Carlos Alvarez de la Vega

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 55-57

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[0001]Northumbria University Social Computing,

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI20DC.13

SO-VID: 9ba212c6-d334-44e3-b0b9-3485c904a1d4

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 33rd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: BCS HCI 2020

Conference number: 33

Conference location: Keele University, UK

Conference date: 6 July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI20DC.13

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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A. ShevchukD. StrebkovS. N. Davis 2019 The Autonomy Paradox: How Night Work Undermines Subjective Well-Being of Internet-Based Freelancers ILR Review 72 1 75 100 doi:10.1177/0019793918767114
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J. WoodockM. Graham 2020 The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction 1st edn Cambridge, UK Polity Press

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] U. Bajwa et al. 2018 Towards an understanding of workers ’ experiences in the global gig economy Globalization and Health 14 124 2 4

[2] T. Berger et al. 2019 Uber Happy? Work and Well-being in the “Gig Economy” Economic Policy 1 35 doi:10.1093/epolic/eiz007

[3] Digital Mindfulness (no date). Available at: https://digitalmindfulness.net Accessed: 7 June 2020

[4] T. R. Dillahunt et al. 2017 The Sharing Economy in Computing Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. CSCW, 1(CSCW) 1 26 doi:10.1145/3134673

[5] S. A. DonovanD. H. BradleyJ. O. Shimabukuro 2016 What Does the Gig Economy Mean for Workers? Congressional Research Service: Report 1 16 Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=112855546&site=ehost-live

[6] H. Glasman-Deal 2010 Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English London, UK Imperial College Press

[7] A. Hannák et al. 2017 Bias in Online freelance marketplaces: Evidence from TaskRabbit and Fiverr Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW 1914 1933 doi:10.1145/2998181.2998327

[8] IFRC 2017 The Future Red Cross and Red Crescent: Futures Exhibition Available at: https://media.ifrc.org/innovation/solferino-academy/the-future-is-now/ Accessed: 7 June 2020

[9] International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2020 Available at: https://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/ Accessed: 7 June 2020

[10] M. H. Jarrahi et al. 2020 Platformic Management, Boundary Resources for Gig Work, and Worker Autonomy Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 29 1–2 153 189 doi:10.1007/s10606-019-09368-7

[11] D. Lambton-Howard et al. 2019 Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings 1 14 doi:10.1145/3290605.3300389

[12] L. Lascau et al. 2019 Monotasking or multitasking: Designing for crowdworkers’ preferences Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings ACM doi:10.1145/3290605.3300649

[13] M. K. Lee et al. 2015 Working with machines: The impact of algorithmic and data-driven management on human workers Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings 2015 April 1603 1612 doi:10.1145/2702123.2702548

[14] D. Martin et al. 2014 Being a turker Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW 224 235 doi:10.1145/2531602.2531663

[15] E. NemkovaP. DemirelL. Baines 2019 In search of meaningful work on digital freelancing platforms: the case of design professionals New Technology, Work and Employment 34 3 226 243 doi:10.1111/ntwe.12148

[16] J. Rainey et al. 2020 TalkFutures: Supporting Qualitative Practices in Distributed Community Engagements ACM Designing Interactive Systems Eindhoven, Netherlands doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3357236.3395531

[17] I. Reddit (no date) Reddit, Inc. Available at: https://www.redditinc.com Accessed: 15 November 2019

[18] S. SannonD. Cosley 2019 Privacy, power, and invisible labor on Amazon Mechanical Turk Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings 1 12 doi:10.1145/3290605.3300512

[19] A. ShevchukD. StrebkovS. N. Davis 2019 The Autonomy Paradox: How Night Work Undermines Subjective Well-Being of Internet-Based Freelancers ILR Review 72 1 75 100 doi:10.1177/0019793918767114

[20] V. de Stefano 2016 The rise of the ‘just-in-time workforce’: On-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the ‘gig economy’ Publications of the International Labour Office Geneva, Switzerland

[21] W. Sutherland et al. 2019 Work Precarity and Gig Literacies in Online Freelancing Work, Employment and Society October doi:10.1177/0950017019886511

[22] W. SutherlandM. H. Jarrahi 2018 The sharing economy and digital platforms: A review and research agenda International Journal of Information Management Elsevier 43 February 328 341 doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.07.004

[23] J. TiconaA. MateescuA. Rosenblat 2018 Beyond Disruption How Tech Shapes Labor Across Domestic Work & Ridehailing Available at: https://datasociety.net/output/beyond-disruption/

[24] C. Towers-Clark 2019 The Uberization Of Work: Pros And Cons Of The Gig Economy Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2019/07/08/the-uberization-of-work-pros-andcons-of-the-gig-economy/ Accessed: 20 May 2020

[25] A. UmairK. ConboyE. Whelan 2019 Understanding the Influence of Technostress on Workers ’ Job Satisfaction in Gig-Economy: an Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) Stockholm & Uppsala, Sweden June 8-14 2019 ISBN 978-1-7336325-0-8 Research-in-Progress 0 12

[26] J. WoodockM. Graham 2020 The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction 1st edn Cambridge, UK Polity Press

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